Thawing Ice Absorbs Heat Without Getting Warmer
To thaw is to melt after being frozen. Melting ice stays at zero while it absorbs energy.
To thaw is to melt after being frozen, or figuratively to become friendlier. A thaw absorbs an enormous amount of energy without any rise in temperature: melting a gram of ice takes about eighty times the energy needed to warm a gram of water by one degree, and all of it goes into breaking the crystal structure. That is why ice keeps a drink cold so effectively and why a spring thaw takes so long. *Thaw* is Old English *thawian*.
- To melt. *The snow thawed.*
- To become friendlier. *Relations thawed.*
- A period of melting. *The spring thaw.*
- Latent heat — the energy absorbed. *Latent heat.*
- Old English — *thawian*. *The source.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb | thaw | Thawing. |
| Past | thawed | Thawed. |
| Noun | thaw | A thaw. |
| Related | melt | To melt. |
| German | tauen | To thaw. |
- The ground thawed slowly.Melting.
- Relations began to thaw.Figurative.
- Melting absorbs latent heat.Physics.
Latent heat
- Melting ice stays at zero degrees while absorbing energy
- That energy breaks the crystal bonds rather than raising temperature
- About 334 joules per gram are needed to melt ice
- Boiling water absorbs even more, about 2,260 joules per gram
- Sweating cools by the same principle in reverse
Old English *thawian*, of Germanic origin, related to German *tauen*.
Why does melting ice stay at zero degrees?
The absorbed energy goes into breaking the crystal structure rather than raising temperature. That is latent heat.
Why does ice cool a drink so well?
Because melting absorbs far more energy than simply warming cold water would, pulling heat out of the drink.